Posts tagged ‘Craft beer’

Unless you’re a farmer, what we’re about to tell you may not make a lot of sense. Not at first.

We started working the fields where we’ll plant our Dare spring malting barley. Actually drilling seeds in the ground? No. That’s five to six months from now. But there’s a lot to do between now and planting time.

Plowing a field of spring barley begins in the fall at Rogue Farms in Tygh Valley, Oregon.

You don’t have to be a professional wrestler to shear a sheep – but it sure helps.

Getting the right combination of strength and balance while shearing off wool is just one of the things you’ll learn at our DIY Workshop: Sheep Shearing and Spinning. The workshop will be held this weekend at Rogue Farms in Independence, Oregon starting at 1:00pm on Sunday, April 14th. There’s a $10 charge for this workshop, but you’ll be going home with your very own drop spindle.

At Rogue Farms we love DIY. It’s why we grow our own hops, barley, pumpkins, rye, honey and other ingredients for our beers and spirits.

We hold a DIY Workshop every month. Here’s the schedule for the rest of the year.

Hops bines appear in early March and are ready for the first cut by the end of the month.

It’s almost time for the first cut of our 42 acres of aroma hops.

We trim back the bines every March. It’s good for the health of the bines and it prevents uneven growth.

Hops are susceptible to mildew and fungal diseases, which are most likely to start in early spring because that’s when we get the most rain during growing season. The first cut removes diseased leaves and spores. As the the bines and leaves grow back, the weather turns drier and the crop is more likely to be disease free.

We also want to give the bines a “fresh start” so they grow and ripen at the same rate. I’s important that the all the hops are ready for harvest at about the same time. The harvest is usually spread out over a two or three week period in August and September. That gives us enough time to process one variety while the other varieties finish ripening. But what we don’t want is a situation where half the Revolution hops are ready for harvest, but the rest won’t be ready for another week. That’s a hop growers nightmare.

And so, the first cut is almost as big of a deal as the second cut, aka the harvest.

While waiting for the bines to grow, March is also a good time to repair and maintain the trellis wires.